Various cleaning articles have been created for dusting and light cleaning. For example, cloth rags and paper towels used dry or wetted with polishing and cleaning compositions have been used on relatively flat surfaces. But, rags and paper towels are problematic for reasons such as hygiene (the user's hand may touch chemicals, dirt or the surface during cleaning), reach (it may be difficult to insert the user's hand with the rag or paper towel into hard-to-reach places) and inconvenience (cleaning between closely-spaced articles typically requires moving the articles).
To overcome the problems associated with using rags and paper towels, various dust gathering devices having feathers, lamb's wool, and synthetic fiber brushes have been utilized for more than a century, as illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 823,725 issued in 1906 to Hayden. Such dust gathering devices can be expensive to manufacture, and as such are designed to be cleaned and reused. One problem associated with a reusable dust gathering device is that such dust gathering devices may not hold or trap dust very well. Soiled, reusable devices are typically cleaned via shaking or through other mechanical agitation. This process is not entirely satisfactory as it requires an extra step during, interrupting and/or following the cleaning process. Furthermore, the attempted restoration of the device may not be successful, allowing redeposition of the previously collected dust.
To address the problems experienced with reusable dust gathering devices, disposable cleaning articles have been developed which have limited re-usability. The cleaning article may be used for one job (several square meters of surface) and discarded as being disposable, or may be restored and re-used for more jobs, then discarded. Traditional cleaning articles including feather dusters, cloths, string mops, strip mops and the like, are not disposable for purposes of this invention.
These disposable cleaning articles may include brush portions made of synthetic fiber bundles, called tow fibers, attached to a sheet as shown in Publication 2010/0319152. The tow fibers and sheets in such articles may be bonded together as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,712,578; U.S. Pat. No. 7,566,671; U.S. Pat. No. 7,779,502; U.S. Pat. No. 7,788,759; U.S. Pat. No. 7,937,797; U.S. Pat. No. 8,186,001 and U.S. Pat. No. 8,245,349. Or the tow fibers may be attached to a plate as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,145,787. The cleaning articles may be manufactured using the processes disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,743,392 and/or 7,003,856.
Such cleaning articles may be made, for example, according to U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,813,801; 6,968,591; 6,984,615; 7,228,587; 7,231,685; 7,234,193; 7,234,914; 7,237,296; 7,237,297; 7,243,391; 7302729; 7,302,730; and/or 7,334,287 (having a common related application). The patents in this linage have a common feature—strips laterally extending from both sides of a generally planar article. U.S. Pat. No. 5,953,784 teaches strips extending not only from both sides of the article, but also from the front. Other geometries include U.S. Pat. No. 7,566,671 which does not use laterally extending strips but cleans only from one side of the implement and U.S. Pat. No. 7,251,851 which teaches a duster having a spiral configuration when disposed on the handle. Dusters which advantageously do not require gather strips are shown in commonly assigned publications: 2013/0232710A1, having differential overhang between the sheet and fibers; 2013/0232711A1, having a sheet with apertures; 2013/0232714A1, having an elastically contracted sheet; and 2013/0232706A1, having an elastically contracted upstanding panel, all filed Mar. 9, 2012. Optionally the cleaning article 10 may further comprise a non-planar structure, as disclosed in commonly assigned US publication 2011/0131746A1, filed Dec. 4, 2009 or wetting as disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,803,726.
All such cleaning articles are typically packaged in a flat state. A plurality of these articles may be stacked together in a common cardboard box. Such stacking increases the planarity of these articles conserving packaging and handling costs, but potentially leading to diminished cleaning performance.
To get optimum performance, a user should pre-fluff the cleaning article prior to use. Fluffing, as defined herein, is the process of increasing the apparent volume of the cleaning article. The volume may be increased if the tow fibers and optionally any sheet layers extend out of the plane. In a particular embodiment, the tow fibers extend radially outwardly approximately 360 degrees from the longitudinal axis. A desirably fluffed cleaning article has no, or only minimal, apparent planarity.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,151,402 teaches the importance of fluffing, but relies upon unusual and complex manufacturing to achieve the fluffing. But this attempt does not provide fluffing without extraneous steps by the manufacturer or user.
Even with instructions, many users simply do not correctly perform the fluffing step. Some users do not read the instructions and entirely skip this step. Fluffing can be frustrated if the gather strips are partially joined together due to improper cutting during manufacture, making the fluffing insufficient or more difficult. The user may tire of the fluffing steps and not fully complete this process. Accordingly, a system which fluffs but does not require extra steps by the user is needed.
Thus, there is a need for a cleaning article which does not require the user to perform a separate, but optional, fluffing step at the point of use. Such cleaning article may be fluffed during dispensing and provide ready-to-use performance without the need for a separate fluffing step.